


Make Me Alive

by Weddersins



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Crack, F/M, Fix It Fic, Fluff, Resurrection hot potato, Somehow Rose became a pilot, TRoS Spoilers, ben and Rey are stubborn, canon? We don’t know her, post TROS story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22021201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weddersins/pseuds/Weddersins
Summary: After the dust settles on Exegol, Ben saves Rey. And then she saves him. And then again. Aaaaand again.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 20
Kudos: 102
Collections: TROS Reylo Fix-it Fics, The Rise of Skywalker: Fix-It Fic Edition





	Make Me Alive

**Author's Note:**

> so, on Twitter, I kept seeing the idea of Rey & Ben rez’ing themselves back to back like a game of hot potato floating around. I couldn’t get it out of my head, so here we are! This is (hopefully) fluffy and fun and stupid, and if I make just one of y’all smile for even a moment it’s all worth it.

Rey watches as Kylo - _no, not him, not any more,_ she reminds herself, _not ever again_ \- she watches as _Ben Solo’s_ smile fades, as the hopeful expression on his face turns to one of resignation. Her joy turns into ashes, the taste of his lips lingering on hers somehow scalding.

Rey feels his body grow heavy in her arms, tightens her shoulders as she struggles to hold him from her awkward position on his lap. His heavy eyes slide closed, face slackens and pales.

She has no choice. Ben’s large body is heavy and her hold untenable, so she lets him sink back into the dust of Exogal - gently, so gently. It plumes around him, settling on his black sweater, highlighting the hole where the lightsaber had… where _she_ had - oh _Force -_

_No_ , she thinks, gripping his shoulders - _no, you don’t get to do this._

_You don’t get to leave me here, alone._

_Not now._

She still feels him in the river of the Force; the dark fire inhabiting the back of her psyche for longer than she can remember is still shot through with brilliant light. She wades into the waters, calling him and calling him -

_be with me, be with me_

\- till the power runs from her fingertips, expands his slack chest and flutters open his dark eyes. He looks up at her - with wonder, with _horror_ \- and struggles back upward as Rey finds her hands growing colder. 

_A trick of the Force_ , she thinks, shoving the sensation away, focusing on the color in his cheeks and the concern in his eyes. 

He smiles, but it’s full of confusion - and fear. She smiles back, ignoring how dim the edges of her vision have become. 

“I couldn’t let you,” she chokes, relieved, “I couldn’t let you go.” 

Rey reaches out with cold hands, with fingers that wouldn’t respond to her commands - finds herself falling against his chest, warm and alive. 

_Why is it so hard to breathe?_

“Ben -” she wheezes, feels fingers dig into her bicep and haul her upwards - _it was better there, against your heart, let me stay there forever -_ and her head suddenly too heavy to hold up. 

The color leeches from the world and Rey remembers what it feels like to die. 

“Kriffing hell, _Rey_ -” Ben’s voice is agony; pain and the confusion boiling underneath the surface. His large hand spans her belly - _what a lovely sensation_ , she thinks in a haze of purple - and she feels him again, bright and dark and _powerful_ as a little more of himself flows into her. 

“ _No!”_ she shouts, heaving herself up and catching Ben as he slumps back again. Before he’s even back in the dirt, her hands are on his shoulders and she’s calling him again -

His eyes spring open and narrow immediately. 

“This isn’t your call, Rey.” His voice is soft and dangerous, and through greying vision Rey sees his large hands ball the fabric of her tunic. 

“Not… yours either,” she grinds out, feeling his energy thrum in her bones and trying to will it away. 

His eyes go glassy as hers brighten, and she finds herself struggling to hold his limp body once more. It’s a losing battle, her limbs weakened from the fight against the Emperor and the fight against death on two different fronts. She groans through gritted teeth with the effort of it. 

“Kriffing… Ben, you’re too damn _big_ ,” she grouses, gravity finally winning over her shaking arms as they both plop back into the dust. Rey lands across his chest, a position that would have been lovely about thirty seconds ago. 

Rey’s almost a little surprised at how easy it is to call him back, now. The _thwoosh_ of her energy transferring to him took almost no effort the third time, the power traveling along a known pathway to greet its other half. 

Truthfully, she never expected to have this much practice. 

Her cold hand rests in his cheek, and before long Ben’s staring back at her with annoyance. 

“Can you just - can you just let me have this, Rey?”

“I’m not just going to let you die for me, Ben.”

_thwoosh_

“I already have, like twice.”

“Three times, actually.”

_thwoosh_

“Well I started it.”

“Technically _I_ started it.”

_thwoosh_

“Well, I’m going to finish it.”

“Like hell you are Ben!”

_thwoosh_

“Try and stop me, Rey.” 

“I literally am.”

_thwoosh_

“Tag, you’re it.”

And Rey laughs, forgets to send him the rush of power, to call his name and drag him back from the river -

But he stays. Her sense of him doesn’t fade. 

Rey is panting, struggling for air - but it feels more like she’s run across a wide desert dune than being dragged under by a wave. Her hand is still covering Ben’s bloodied cheek, her thumb inches from his bright, dark eyes. 

He’s staring up at her, wide-eyed and wondering. Each puff of his breath moves a damp lock of black hair further away from his mouth, and Rey reaches up with her other hand to brush it away entirely. For a moment neither one of them speaks, their gaze held steady as they feel the rise and fall of the other’s chests, their breaths entering and exiting without interruption. 

Ben smiles - really, truly smiles, and Rey feels the edges of his eye crinkle under her thumb. A large hand pulls her down for a kiss, and she melts into it willingly. Her fingers tangle in his black hair, smoothing away a few strands still matted with blood as she smiles against his mouth. 

It isn’t until his hand slips from the back of her head to land gracelessly in the dirt that she realizes what he’s done. 

“Benjamin _Organa_ Solo!” Rey roars indignantly, sitting up and dislodging his other arm in the process. “I was _fine!_ ” She grips his shoulder, but before she can reach that riotous river of Force a familiar voice interrupts. 

“Rey! Rey, oh thank goodness - we gotta leave, this whole place is going to shit…”

Rose’s voice trails off as she comes closer, her rapid footfalls slowing to a halt. Rey looks up from Ben’s still face as Rose’s expression turns from relief to confusion. 

“Is… is that Kylo Ren? Is he dead? Were you _kissing_ him?” 

“Sort of, yes, and yes.” 

Rose looks from Rey to Ben in visible distress. 

“... are those responses in order, or… do you need a stim, or… something?”

“No, no, we’re fine -” 

Wasting no more time, Rey shuts out Rose’s increasingly panicked voice and throws herself once again into the Force, grabbing Ben’s bright light and dragging him back upwards. 

He awakes with a splutter, grinning roguishly up at her. “Worth a try, right?” 

“You’re impossible.”

“You like it,” he groans, struggling back into a seated position. Ben narrows his eyes as Rey remains standing, arms folded over her chest. “You're… still okay,” he says dumbly, blinking up at her before straightening his sweater. 

“I was the _last_ time too, before you just decided to -”

“- I wonder why, I mean did we finally find an equilibrium? Did something else step in -”

“I mean, I don’t really think now is the time to be focusing on the how and the why of it all -”

“you didn’t see any blue guys around, did you?”

“No, no I don’t think I did.”

“Huh.”

“I’m sorry, uh, hi - I must have missed something with, uh, everything else going on but he was _dead_ , right?” Rose asks, looking vaguely nauseous. 

Ben looks from Rey to Rose in confusion. “Who is this, when did she get here?”

“Oh, this is Rose! Ben, Rose; Rose, Ben.”

“Nice to meet you Rose.”

“Rey _what the fuck.”_

 _“_ I promise I’ll explain later, Rose.”

“I _know_ that’s not the Ben you told me you had That Thing with, Rey, because -”

“... wait, what is she talking about, what Thing?”

“Guys, I don’t think now is the best time -”

The ground around them quakes, and Rey struggles to maintain her balance. Rose isn’t as lucky, yelping as she’s thrown to her knees. 

“We gotta _go_ ,” she snaps, grabbing Rey’s arm as she leans down to help her up. 

“No argument from me,” Rey reaches back down for Ben, stumbling only slightly as the bigger man lurches unsteadily to his feet. 

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten this conversation,” Rose warns as she dusts off the legs of her pants. 

“I know I’m not that lucky - wait, Ben, what are you even doing?”

“You’re fine, right? You’re sure you’re fine?” Ben is lifting Rey’s hair from her neck, poking her stomach, grabbing her shoulders while Rey rolls her eyes at the slack-jawed Rose. 

“I’m fine,” she says, shrugging her shoulders and gently pushing Ben backwards, “I’m great, actually, I promise but we _really_ need to -”

A nearby explosion rocks the huge amphitheater, the shockwave sending them all to their knees. In its wake, debris rains around them like meteors. Ben throws out his arm at the last second, sending a person-sized chunk of rock careening away from Rose’s head to terminate against the empty throne. 

“... to go. _We really need to go,_ ” Rey shouts, grabbing Ben with one hand and Rose with the other and dragging them away from the spidery throne and the cranelike apparatus. 

“Oh, so he’s coming too?” Rose asks, panting as she tries to keep up with Rey’s long strides and Ben’s even longer ones. She yelps as the earth shakes again and the pit to their left widens, Ben yanking her back from the side of it at the last second. “I mean, it’s fine, _it’s totally fine_ , the Y-wing is a two seater but it’s fine, we’ll work it out _let’s just go-”_

Rey doesn’t stop shaking till they’re in the Y-Wing, till she’s crammed unceremoniously into the gunner’s chair with Ben as Rose violently jerks the yoke to rocket them off the surface of the planet. A vicious kick to the hyperdrive near Rose’s knee gets it going after a moment of panic, the stars blurring as they leave Exogal far, far behind. 

Rey leans against the canopy, sighing in relief. She hears a similar noise from the nose of the tiny starfighter, but can’t see Rose over the back of her chair. Ben’s bloodied face is illuminated by the blue streaks of hyperspace, the color pooling in the crags and the lines till he looks more carved stone than man. 

But he catches her looking at him, turning his head, and the illusion is gone. He’s real - flesh and blood and man and very, _very_ much alive. She has the irrational urge to laugh - the ridiculous giggles bubble up inside of her as she remembers that they’ve both been dead, like, seventeen times in the last hour. 

A snort escapes despite her best efforts, and Rey wonders what effect the lack of oxygen may have had on her impulse control. 

Ben cracks a smile in response, warm and soft. It only makes Rey laugh harder, and as she covers her mouth to stop the raucous noise Ben’s control is lost as well. His laugh is bright and deep and it shakes Rey’s shoulders with its force. 

“What’s so funny?” Rose says, turning around in her chair and standing on her knees to face them. 

“I don’t… I don’t _know_ ,” Rey wheezes, looking up at Rose with tears in her eyes. “but that was - that -” 

She gestures vaguely down and behind them, and Rose raises an eyebrow. 

“that was _the most ridiculous two hours of my life_ ,” Rey squeaks out, watching Ben cover his eyes with his free hand as his laughter shakes the cockpit. 

Rose flips a stabilizer lever without breaking eye contact. 

“Do… do you remember when - with the lightsaber? And the -” Ben’s waving his hand around in a swishy motion, miming a stab and a parry - “I wish you could have seen their faces when - it just - _poof”_ He dissolves into laughter, with Rey’s voice chasing his own. 

“He - he said I was _alone_ \- and then -”

“Then I just -”

“And that _stupid_ line before he -”

Rey wipes tears from her eyes, choking on laughter as Ben’s chest rumbles against her back. If Rose’s eyebrows migrated up any further, they would disappear entirely, and she’s looking between Ben and Rey with a mixture of amusement and confusion. 

“Well, I have about fifty-seven - no, no, sixty-two questions and it’s a _very_ long way to Ajan Kloss from here.” She re-crosses her arms over her chest, gesturing at Rey. “I think one of you had better start explaining, starting with… he was dead, I did see that with my own eyes, I’m not crazy… tell me I’m not crazy? No, wait - _Ben_? Is this _the_ Ben? No, no, wait I’m sorry back up he was _definitely_ _dead_ _right?”_

“Well…”

Rey hiccups, settling against Ben in the cramped space. His fingers grip her waist, holding her too close. His soft breaths tickle her ear, the rise and fall of his chest suddenly the only thing she could focus on, unable to lend words to the sentences floating in her mind. 

“Rey?” his voice is low and rumbling against her back, sending a chill up her spine. 

“I’m fine,” she says, as much to herself as to the both of them. She wipes away the inexplicable moisture in the corner of her eye - there were no tears needed here, no reason to cry. She was alive, Ben was alive. 

And they had won. 

“It’s just a _lot_ ,” Rey says, fixing her smile and grabbing Ben’s hand. He gives her fingers a tight squeeze, and Rey feels the moisture gathering again. “It just feels like an impossible amount of _things_ crammed into such a short time.”

She was full of knowledge now, both terrible and wonderful. 

Rose nods, her expression softening. “It feels like weeks since I last saw you. Hard to believe it hasn’t even been a day.” she smiles, and Rey remembers exactly why she loves her sweet friend so much. “You don’t really have to tell me anything right now, Rey. It’s okay.”

“No - no, there’s at least a few things you should know before we land. And I do. I do want to tell you, I mean.”

Rey takes a deep breath, looking from Ben to Rose to the stars beyond -

The stars that once felt lonely, but now told her she was no longer alone. 

Her chest still burns, but her hands are warm and the stars are bright and her heartbeat echoes across the bond with her dyad, her soulmate, _Ben_ \- 

And this is what it means to be alive. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi to me on [ Twitter](https://twitter.com/weddersins).


End file.
